An anniversary no one wanted to see
Don’t go all sappy on us or anything, but this month marks the 30th anniversary of one of the world’s most annoying technology advances: spam.
Yes, according to a Denver company called MX Logic, history’s first unwanted and unsolicited e-mail was sent in May 1978 by Gary Thuerk, a marketing manager for Digital Equipment Co.
Who could Thuerk spam in 1978 when virtually no one had even heard of e-mail?
Thuerk is credited with spamming government and university computers that were part of what was known as the ARPAnet. He was trying to generate computer sales.
Today there are more than 9 billion spam messages sent every day, MX Logic said in an e-mail, which, by the way, arrived in my mailbox unsolicited from a PR firm trying to drum up interest in an interview.
No thanks.
Anyway, happy birthday, spam. Let’s hope that your days are numbered.
Jim Stafford
Business News Reporter
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